


Valentine's Day

by kawada_s



Series: Main Universe: The Specials [1]
Category: Battle Royale - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 06:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9708335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawada_s/pseuds/kawada_s
Summary: Valentine’s Day for Class 3-B. Kazuo delivers roses. Yukie begins to look for her secret admirer upon receiving roses from someone anonymous. Shinji wants to get the courage to talk to the transfer student. Yoshio is pleasantly surprised by the events of the day. Hirono just wants it to all be over.





	

Valentine’s Day 

Since he had begun dating Sakura Ogawa the previous year, Valentine’s Day had quickly turned into one of the most important days of the year for Kazuhiko Yamamoto. It was their second Valentine’s Day as a couple and he was determined to make it as special as he possibly could. He carefully placed the present he’d picked out the week before in his bag before heading off to school, and on the way, stopped off to by her a bouquet of her favourite flowers. He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when she saw everything.

When their school came into view, he immediately saw Sakura sitting at their usual meeting spot on school mornings, a bench just inside the gates. When he noticed her checking her watch, him usually not late to meet her, he got a little nervous. Telling himself that she wouldn’t be annoyed once he knew the reason why he was late made him begin to calm down, and he went to get everything ready before approaching her.

“Good morning,” Kazuhiko greeted her as he approached the bench, noticing how her face lit up when she saw him. “I’m sorry I’m late, but I think I’ve made up for it. Happy Valentine’s Day, Sakura!”

Sakura gasped as Kazuhiko gave her the flowers and the gift, a medium-sized brown and white teddy bear that was holding a heart. She wrapped him in a tight hug before pulling away to get her own gift for him.

“Thank you, Kaz! You didn’t have to do this, really,” Sakura blushed, looking down at the large gold box in her hand. “Happy Valentine’s Day to you too.”

Kazuhiko opened the box carefully, smiling brightly at her when he saw his favourite chocolates inside. Not caring whoever was watching or if they got in trouble, he gave her a quick kiss. It was _Valentine’s Day_. They had to give some sort of allowance, just for today.

Yoshimi Yahagi watched the two with a small smile on her face, while her two companions, Mitsuko Souma and Hirono Shimizu, watched on in disgust. Mitsuko rolled her eyes and made a comment about how dumb the two were, while Hirono simply picked up a can from the ground, threw it at them, and told them to quit making her feel ill so early in the morning. Blushing, Sakura and Kazuhiko walked off hand in hand, not seemingly upset by her action at all.

As she was about to lecture Hirono about trying to be nicer, a project Yoshimi had decided to take on much to the girl’s annoyance (it was not working at all), she heard the sound of Yoji Kuramoto’s voice behind her, and she immediately ran off to greet him. It was going to be their first Valentine’s Day together, and she was sure it was going to be special.

Mitsuko and Hirono, on the other hand, figured this would be a train wreck. The two leaned against a tree and watched on from a distance, waiting to see it go down. They both figured it would be the only enjoyment they’d get out of the day.

“So…” Yoshimi mumbled as she walked beside Yoji, confused as to why he hadn’t said anything about the day or given her anything yet. She fumbled around for her own present in her bag as she continued to talk. “You know what day it is today?”

“Uh,” Yoji frowned, thinking hard for a moment. “It’s Thursday, right?” From their spot behind the tree, Mitsuko and Hirono snickered.

“Fucking dumbass,” Hirono laughed. “It’s _Tuesday_ , and he forgot about Valentine’s Day on the only year he’ll probably have someone to celebrate with.”

“But what’s special about today?” Yoshimi asked with a big smile on her face. Yoji frowned and shrugged, giving her an answer about two minutes later.

“Uh… Kazushi’s coming over to play a new video game with me later, I think.. or is that tomorrow?” Yoji frowned. Mitsuko and Hirono looked at each other, laughing as if they actually were best friends.

“Ew,” Mitsuko and Hirono said in unison, Hirono adding one more comment. “Come on, Yoshimi. Don’t be a disappointment for once and _dump him.”_

“What?” Yoshimi stepped in front of him, tears in her eyes. “C’mon, Yoji. You really can’t have forgotten what day it is?!”

“Uh, yeah. You probably didn’t tell me if we had any plans, you are quite forgetful at times,” Yoji said back, laughing nervously.

“Asshole,” Mitsuko muttered, despite the fact she said much worse to Yoshimi on the daily. Being mean to Yoshimi was _her_ job, and no one else was going to take that over. At times, she was willing to share this with Hirono, but Hirono was nowhere near as nasty to her as Mitsuko was.

“IT’S VALENTINE’S DAY!” Yoshimi shouted. Her voiced echoed around the area, and everyone stopped to stare at her for a moment.

“Come on, nothing to see here, MOVE IT,” Mitsuko yelled out, not caring if Yoshimi knew they were there. Immediately, everyone went upon their usual business and scrambled to move on with their lives.

“Oh…” Yoji frowned. “Shit. I guess I just didn’t think it was that important. Like we go places and do stuff all the time, it’s just another day, really.”

“JUST. ANOTHER. DAY??” Yoshimi began to cry. “Don’t look at me. Don’t talk to me. Just leave me alone. GOODBYE.”

Mitsuko and Hirono watched as Yoshimi stormed off after stomping down hard on his foot. From behind another tree, Sho Tsukioka began to applaud. Mitsuko and Hirono didn’t even bother to glare at him, and just joined in. For the two girls, it had already been the best Valentine’s Day ever.

\---

Kazuo Kiriyama was not sure how he had gotten the job of the Class 3-B Cupid this year. Now that he was, however, he decided to attempt to complete the task to the best of his ability. It was another experience he could catalogue, at least, and he doubted it would be one that he would want to repeat. He wore a heart headband on his head, the hearts shaking whenever he took a step, and a red suit. Sho had given him the outfit, save for the headband, when Mitsuru insisted that wearing the school’s cupid costume would ruin his image.

The headband was part of the costume. As scared as he was of Kazuo and his gang of delinquents, Mr. Hayashida insisted he wear the headband. He had to wear at least _one_ part of the costume, so the headband it was. It didn’t bother Kazuo much, really, but Ryuhei and Hiroshi were horrified. If he hadn’t been, well, the Boss, they probably would have laughed.

Kazuo looked down at the table filled with roses that had all arrived that day, having been ordered the week before. It would be his job to deliver them. He was about to finish off writing the message out on the tag on the last bouquet of roses when the bell rang. He was going perfectly to schedule, as to be expected from him. He’d have delivered them all in no time.

He looked down at the clipboard detailing all the orders in his hands, and read out the final message.

 _To: Takako Chigusa_  
Message: You’re a babe. Go out with me finally? You won’t regret it ;)  
From: Kazushi Niida 

Kazuo put the clipboard down and thought for a moment. No one in their class liked Kazushi, he had observed, Chigusa least of all. Kazushi had never seemed to have any successful human interactions with anyone, and he doubted these roses would bring him any change. It would not be logical to deliver these roses, Kazuo decided quickly.

Instead, he made the most logical decision of all, by throwing the roses in the bin and drawing a large black line through Kazushi’s name on the list. He was done. It was time to deliver.

He gathered up the roses in a basket covered with hearts, and went off to their classroom. He went inside and began to distribute out the roses, starting with roses from Sakura to Kazuhiko. He seemed rather grateful for his roses. Already, they seemed to be going over better with the class than his Christmas presents had. He wondered more than ever what had been wrong with them.

After several deliveries to obviously very grateful people, he placed a dozen roses on Noriko Nakagawa’s desk. The roses had died, but he had decided to deliver them anyway. From his observations, Noriko seemed like a person that others would label a kind person, and wouldn’t turn the roses into an unsuccessful social interaction. Yoshitoki Kuninobu looked over and immediately slumped down in his chair in embarrassment. It was his chance to try and impress Noriko, and of course something would go wrong.

Fate seemed to have other plans.

Right on cue, Shuya Nanahara placed a hand on his best friend’s shoulder, telling him that it was okay, and that everything was fine. Even Noriko shot him a smile and was about to say something, which gave Yoshitoki some hope, but all that went right out the window when Mitsuko stood up. Slightly confused but mostly worried, Yoshitoki watched her as she walked over to Noriko’s desk.

“I’ll take care of this,” Mitsuko said, grabbed the roses, and threw them in the bin. It was almost like she was jealous.

This only made Yoshitoki feel worse. Noriko didn’t offer any words of encouragement after that, since their teacher asked her to help him get something, and she disappeared from the room. Shuya rifled around in his bag for a heart shaped box, and carefully placed it on Yoshitoki’s desk.

“I’m sorry about that, Nobu,” Shuya looked at him, giving him a smile which he couldn’t help but return. When Shuya was happy, he could pretty much cheer up everyone around him. “I’d be happy to be your Valentine though, if you’re okay with that.”

“Of course,” Yoshitoki said, eyes lighting up. Taking his chance while their teacher was out of the room, he opened the box, and tried one of the chocolates. “So good. Thank you, Shuya!”

Shuya just smiled and shrugged his shoulders, saying it wasn’t a problem. Anything for Nobu.

Toshinori Oda was the next to receive his delivery. An arrogant grin spread across his face as he snatched the roses from Kazuo’s hands, making an effort to not touch him as he did so, due to his vulgarity. He read the tag, his grin growing, and then began to read out what was written on it loudly and clearly, wanting the entire class to hear him.

“Dear Toshinori, you have had to put up with being surrounded by vulgar morons for fifteen years now. You have not deserved this, and you deserve to be surrounded in excellence for the remainder of your life. Unfortunately, until you get out of the vulgar place that is this school, you probably will be forced to postpone your life goals. These roses serve as an incentive to keep working through the agony, and as a reward for putting up with the constant vulgarity for so long. Love, Toshinori.”

For a moment, the entire classroom was completely silent, before Hirono began to laugh.

“Are you _serious_ , Frog Boy? You sent yourself roses?” Hirono mocked. Toshinori turned around to glare at her, gripping his roses tightly.

 “At least _I_ got roses,” Toshinori snapped, then turned back around. Hirono clenched her fists and tried to figure out what to say back, but sadly, he had gotten the last laugh that time. She made a mental note to harass him more than usual.

Kazuo went over to Mitsuru Numai’s desk next, giving him a single rose. His eyes widened,  not expecting it at all, but still, he was grateful for the gesture. With a small smile on his face, he read out the tag on the rose. Deep down, he was hoping the rose was from Kazuo, but he highly doubted it. Kazuo didn’t do things like that. It was probably some girl in the class that had a crush on him, or Hiroshi or Ryuhei had sent him an anonymous roses to mess with him.

“Numai. When I found out about the rose delivery, I was not going to send anything, until I remembered the fact that you are decent. Enjoy your rose. Kazuo.”

Mitsuru’s eyes widened and he couldn’t help but smile, stuttering out a thank you to Kazuo, but he was gone already. Hiroshi looked over at Sho, who now looked absolutely miserable, and began to laugh at his misfortune. He hadn’t gotten anything himself, but he’d rather go around empty handed (Valentine’s Day was lame anyway), than go around empty handed after being completely ignored by the person you’d been crushing on for months.

Haruka Tanizawa looked down at her desk nervously as Kazuo delivered roses to Yukie Utsumi. Her heart raced as she looked over for a moment to see her friends eyes light up as she held the flowers, immediately going to look at the tag. She hoped that it had been filled out properly… but what if it hadn’t? What if instead of ‘anonymous,’ as she had requested, the tag actually said her name? She tried to calm herself down by telling herself Kazuo would never make a mistake like that, and waited to see Yukie’s reaction.

“Aww, that was sweet! Haruka, I have a secret admirer!” Yukie smiled over at her friend, who could now finally relax again. Haruka gave her a nod and a smile, trying to focus on her happiness more than the thoughts going around in her head. “But… I don’t think it’s a secret…”

“You don’t?” Haruka’s eyes widened. The only people who knew were Hirono, as a result of a conversation they had at a party several months ago where they became somewhat friends, where she confided in her, and Sho. Neither of them would ever tell, she knew that… but what if someone had overheard her?

“Shuya probably didn’t want any of the other girls to get upset if they knew he only send me roses… that’s so thoughtful of him…” Yukie blushed, and before Haruka could say anything, got up and went over to his desk to say a quiet thank you. Inside, she groaned, wondering if sending the roses had been a good idea. She hadn’t gone into it thinking Yukie might get hurt…

“Good morning, Utsumi,” Shuya greeted her with a smile. “How have you been today?”

“Pretty good,” Yukie returned the smile, moving slightly closer to him. “I just wanted to say thank you for the roses. I know you didn’t put your name of them, because you didn’t want to upset anyone, which was really sweet.”

Shuya looked at her for a moment, cheeks going red when she gave him a hug, because he knew precisely that he did not send those roses. He didn’t send any this year. The only thing he was going to do was probably give chocolates to his friends. Yukie had been kind of right though – he hadn’t sent any roses because he didn’t want to accidentally leave someone out and hurt their feelings, or hurt someone else’s feelings for any other reason unintentionally.

“I’m sorry, Utsumi,” Shuya pulled away slowly, trying to pick his words as carefully as he could. “I didn’t send those roses. I didn’t send any this year. I guess you have a secret admirer. That’s quite exciting.”

While she was rather disappointed that Shuya hadn’t sent the roses, she was nowhere near as devastated as Haruka had figured she would be after receiving the news. She nodded at him, letting him know she wasn’t upset with him at all, and then returned to her seat beside her best friend, getting out a piece of paper. She was determined to get to the bottom of this secret admirer business. Haruka looked down at the desk, wondering if she’d done more harm than good in sending the roses. She’d just wanted to get herself as close as she possibly could to actually getting her feelings out to Yukie.

 _She’ll probably forget about the roses after the day is over,_ Haruka told herself, trying to ignore the feelings of doubt rising up in her mind. She plastered a smile on her face and turned to Yukie, figuring that in a minute, their teacher would come back, and she’d have to stop thinking about her secret admirer for a moment.

“Oh god,” Yukie suddenly said, looking over at Haruka nervously. “What if… _Motobuchi_ sent the roses?!”

“I don’t think there’s any danger of it being Motobuchi, Yukie,” Haruka laughed and shook her head.

She motioned over to where Kyoichi was sitting, beside Ryuhei Sasagawa. No one really knew the whole story behind their friendship they were pretty sure had turned or was definitely turning into something more yet, but they were sure it was an interesting and quite peculiar one. Kyoichi had given Ryuhei a box of chocolates, which he’d promptly ripped the lid off of and begun to devour one by one as fast as he possibly could without endangering himself.

Kyoichi was horrified.

“You’ve almost eaten the whole box!” Kyoichi said to him, acting as if the world had just exploded into anarchy.

“What else are you supposed to do with chocolates this good, nerd?” Ryuhei asked through a mouth full of chocolate. Kyoichi moved back slightly, not wanting Ryuhei to get chocolate on his immaculate uniform.

“You’re supposed to _savour_ them, dumbass. They’re from the _gourmet range_ and rather expensive,” Kyoichi told him. Ryuhei rolled his eyes, and began to eat the last row of chocolates in the box.

“They’re from the _gourmet range_ ,” Ryuhei mocked. Kyoichi frowned, and decided to just let him be. It wasn’t his fault Ryuhei missed the importance of savouring gourmet food. He’d learn eventually.

Yukie looked away from the exchange and gave her best friend a nod. She crossed Kyoichi’s name off the list she had started to make, trying to think of someone else that could have sent them. The search was on.

\---

Shinji Mimura had a problem. A major problem. A problem so great that he couldn’t go a day without it impacting him in some way or another. He had a crush. It seemed like such an ordinary problem for a junior high school student to have, but for Shinji, it felt like the end of the world. He just didn’t _get_ crushes. His friends got them, sure, and he’d sit there and offer advice and listen to their thoughts, but it wasn’t his style.

At least, he thought it wasn’t his style until Shogo Kawada had come to their school in the beginning of the ninth grade school year. He’d been put in Shinji’s class. Shogo sat near Shinji and his friends. Near enough for him to be able to stare at him all lesson. Sometimes, at lunch, he’d tell his friends at lunch he needed to go get something, but really, he’d just try to catch a glimpse of Shogo, usually sitting on his own in a discreet part of the school, cigarette in hand. _Talk to him,_ he’d tell himself. _Just talk to him._

Shinji did not.

It was Valentine’s Day now, and Shuya, the only person he’d confided in about the crush, had been trying to convince him to make a move today. At first, he had been extremely hesitant, but somewhere between last week and today, he’d ended up at the mall with Shuya. He’d bought a small box of chocolates, Shuya looking around for something for Nobu, and had decided that it was all he think he’d have the confidence to give him. At the moment, however, he was doubting that he could even do this.

He stopped for a moment. He could do this. He was _Shinji Mimura_ – of course he could give someone a box of chocolates. It would be no sweat. If only he could stop overthinking the whole thing.

It was lunch now, and he’d left his group for the time being, leaving them with one of the usual excuses he gave when he’d try to see Shogo. Shuya was the only one who knew what he was trying to do, and had discreetly mouth ‘good luck at him’ as he’d stood up. He was determined to do this. It was just a box of chocolates.

As he walked down the hallway, towards Shogo’s spot, he saw Yumiko and Yukiko exchanging chocolates. _See?_ He thought to himself. _Other people are doing it, and so can you._ He repeated this to himself as he walked, but it did little to calm his nerves. For a moment, he even admitted to himself that his nerves were almost laughable, but then went right back to being nervous again.

He abruptly stopped when he bumped into someone several minutes later, falling back, but managing to catch himself before he hit the ground. The chocolates had come out unscathed too, luckily, or at least the box. If it had been damaged, it would have been just too easy to give up on his plan.

“Sorry,” Shinji apologised casually, hoping the person wouldn’t be mad. He looked up at them and was going to make a joke to try and ease the awkwardness, but stopped right in his tracks when he saw who was there.

 _Shogo Kawada._ Great. Just great. He’d already been nervous enough.

“It’s fine. No damage done,” Shogo let out a sigh, picking up his pack of cigarettes off the floor. He turned to leave, and while Shinji was still embarrassed, he was still trying to think this through properly. He had to act now, or he’d most likely never end up giving him the chocolates.

“Wait!” Shinji called out, gripping the chocolate box tightly. He hoped he wouldn’t break it. Slowly, he stepped closer to him, watching his expression carefully. Shogo didn’t really look irritated, but it was obvious that he wanted to get going as soon as he could.

“Yes?” Shogo raised an eyebrow, having no idea what someone like the infamous Shinji Mimura could want with him. He’d never gone out of his way to talk to anyone since he’d come here, or make himself noteworthy.

Shinji, without a word, his mind completely blank in that moment, handed him the chocolates. Shogo took them carefully, wondering in the back of his mind if this was all some sort of trick. Since most people in their class seemed to afraid of him to play a trick on him and Shinji didn’t seem the type to do something like that (and god, he was nervous, it was unbelievably obvious), he decided to keep an open mind.

Upon inspection, he realised that they were his favourite chocolates, and he wondered how Shinji could have possibly known this. When he looked up to thank him and maybe ask him about this fact, he realised that he was gone. Up ahead, he just barely saw Shinji turn the corner, now completely out of sight, and that was it.

Shogo let out a sigh, and decided to follow him. He couldn’t just leave it like this.

\---

Takako Chigusa had made it this far in her day without running into Kazushi Niida. She had been surprised that he hadn’t gotten her any roses, not knowing of the role Kazuo played in that, or followed her around when she got to school wishing her a happy Valentine’s Day, but it was not something that she missed whatsoever. Getting to lunch without him bothering her seemed like an achievement, especially considering what day it was.

Unfortunately, on her way to catch back up with Kahoru and the other people they hung out with, her luck ran out. She saw Kazushi standing in her way up ahead, and his face seemed to light up when he saw her. She gave him the coldest glare possible, but he didn’t move at all. She let out a sigh, and tried to figure how she could get him to go away. She wasn’t going to walk off for the rest of lunch and stay away from her friends because an idiot like _Kazushi_ was in her way.

“Hey, Chigusa!” Kazushi called out to her, holding a large box of chocolates. “I’ve been trying to find a chance to talk to you all day! I sent you roses, but they didn’t arrive. I don’t know why. I was thinking about asking Kiriyama why they didn’t come, but then Numai threatened to punch me in the face if I ever went near him again so I figured it wasn’t a good idea.”

“There is some justice in this world,” Takako said with a sigh. Kazushi didn’t seem to pay attention to this remark whatsoever.

“But I’ve found you now, so that’s good. I bought you some chocolates. Here,” Kazushi said, holding out the chocolate box. Takako gave him a look of absolute disgust, and shook her head.

“No,” Takako said matter-of-factly. Kazushi’s face darkened.

“What?! I got these specially for you,” Kazushi frowned. Takako just shot him another glare, and folded her arms. She heard sounds faintly in the distance, coming from further down the hall, and hoped that once Kazushi figured he had an audience to witness him being rejected, he’d give up and move on. “You’re such a bitch, you know that, right? An ungrateful bitch. _I_ went out of _my_ way to get these for you, so-“

Kazushi’s rant was interrupted by the group of people Takako had heard coming down the hall, a group of students from Class 3-C rolling a cart beside them. The cart slipped from their hands, and went out of control.

“Watch out!”

Kazushi just ignored them, going back to his rant. The group of students tried to stop the cart in time and yell for Kazushi to move, but to no avail. The cart hit Kazushi, sending him falling to the side… where he hurtled out the window. At the last second, he threw the box of chocolates, and they landed at Takako’s feet.

The students looked absolutely terrified, but Takako just shrugged, told them to move along, and no one would care anyway. While still nervous, the group nodded, grabbed the cart and moved on, telling her they hoped she’d have a good day. She gave them a small smile – her day was made now. One problem however, remained – what was she supposed to do with the chocolates?

Sure, it was _chocolate,_ but it was chocolate from _Kazushi._ It needed to be disposed of immediately.

She heard footsteps behind her and turned around on instinct, wondering if Kazushi had managed to get himself out of the bushes below remarkably quickly, but she was met with relief. Tatsumichi Oki stood there, sheepishly holding roses. While Oki was nice enough, she hoped the roses weren’t for her, and was glad when he walked by her. Before he could disappear however, she realised he was the exact person she wanted to see at this moment.

“Oki!” Takako called out before he could leave her sight. He turned around quickly, almost stumbling.

“Y-yes, Chigusa?” Tatsumichi responded, gripping the roses tightly. He swore under his breath when he was pricked by thorns. “U-uh, sorry about that.”

“Can you get rid of these for me?” Takako held out the chocolates to Tatsumichi. “Don’t eat them, or give them to anyone else. Just destroy them. Obliterate them. Considering your past actions, I’m sure you’ll be able to do that.”

Tatsumichi nodded, looking down at the ground in embarrassment as he took the box of chocolates from her. He knew exactly what she was referring to when she said ‘past actions.’ At Christmas time, Kazuo had gone around and given everyone gifts, using a list he’d created in a way that no one would be able to understand but him. Tatsumichi’s name had been at the bottom of the list, and by the time his turn came around, he had heard so many horror stories about the gifts that had been given that he’d almost been too scared to open the door.

He had, anyway, as it was Kazuo Kiriyama, and he didn’t want to cross him, but he hadn’t opened it. He’d destroyed the gift the first chance he’d gotten, and he figured that would be the end of it… that was, until the class wanted to see what he’d gotten. When the class had discovered he’d gotten a box of chocolates (from the _gourmet range_ , even), they, especially Mitsuko, had been pissed.

He’d almost become the class meme, even, but Ryuhei had saved the day at the last minute. That was another story altogether.

“Uh okay,” Tatsumichi shrugged. Takako stepped back and watched as he put the chocolates on the floor, and proceeded to stomp the shit out of them for several minutes. When they had been smashed to smithereens, he left, having something he was planning to do.

Takako looked down at the box of chocolates on the ground, barely recognisable anymore. Order had been restored.

\---

Valentine’s Day had never been one of Yoshio Akamatsu’s favourite days. In fact, it was up there with one of the worst days of the school year. He did like seeing so many people walking around smiling and laughing with their boyfriend, girlfriend or the crush they’d admitted their feelings for, but every year for him seemed to get lonelier. No one had ever given him chocolates, or roses, or anything. He’d just sat back and watched every year, wondering deep down if anything would ever be different, but he always figured it would end up staying exactly the same.

At least while this year had been lonely, he’d been able to keep his dignity intact. Last year, he’d been sent flowers as a joke, and it had completely crushed him. He still remembered the sound of laughter ringing in his ears and how he’d never wanted to come to school ever again. He never wanted to go through that ever again.

He sat in the classroom eating lunch today, wanting to be away from the rest of the class. He felt bad for thinking it, but he didn’t want to be around all the Valentine’s Day celebrations. After he had exposed Ryuhei as ‘fake as fuck’ at an anti-bullying assembly about a month and a half ago, he’d managed to talk to Mr. Hayashida about Ryuhei’s bullying, and he had promised to sort it out, and had also said he could have lunch in the classroom at times if he felt like it. Yoshio was quite grateful.

“U-uh hey, Akamatsu?” A voice behind him made Yoshio flinch. He paused his game and looked around to see Tatsumichi standing there, a hand behind his back.

“Y-y-yes?” Yoshio stammered, wondering what he did. Tatsumichi had never seemed that bad, he tried to tell himself. He’d never seen him bully anyone before, and he didn’t seem like the type, but then again, he’d never gone out of his way to help Yoshio or talk to him in the past. He was a potential enemy.

“I… I… um…” Tatsumichi stammered, before handing roses out to him with a shaking hand, “happy Valentine’s Day. I… I’m not good with words… so um… just take the flowers..”

Yoshio’s eyes widened, and he looked around quickly, wondering when the rest of the class would come out and burst into laughter. This had to be a trick. Why would anyone ever give him a Valentine’s Day gift. He was _Yoshio –_ the former class laughing stock. Sure, no one had gone after him since exposing Ryuhei, but even _Ryuhei_ , who had taken over class laughing stock duties, had a Valentine.

“Who put you up to this?” Yoshio asked him sadly, not reaching to take the flowers. He’d developed a bit more confidence since the day he’d exposed Ryuhei.

“What?” Tatsumichi frowned, before realising Yoshio thought this was a trick. “No, no! It’s not a trick, Akamatsu, I promise. I think you’re pretty cool. I swear, this isn’t a trick. I wanted to get you something. I guess I’ve just never had the courage to say anything before.”

Yoshio nodded slightly, deciding to take a chance, and took the flowers carefully.

“Thank you, Oki,” Yoshio said quietly. He took a step forward. “Would you like to, um, I don’t know, go to the arcade or something after school?”

Tatsumichi gave him a smile. A genuine smile. Yoshio didn’t feel scared at all anymore.

“I’d love that, Akamatsu.”

\---

Yuichiro Takiguchi had been hiding behind the door for about fifteen minutes now. Mitsuko Souma and her group sat nearby, Mitsuko filing her nails, Hirono smoking, and Yoshimi laying on the ground weeping, which was rather odd, until he remembered the news of her and Yoji’s rather public break up that morning. Neither of the other girls seemed to care at all, and even seemed kind of annoyed by her sobbing. Yuichiro felt bad for her, but in the back of his mind, hoped she’d leave soon. He was already embarrassed enough about the possibility of actually going up to Mitsuko and giving her a present – he wanted to avoid having an audience. It would just make it worse.

At some point, much to his relief, Hirono finished off her cigarette and got up, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

“I’m going,” Hirono stated. “All this Valentine’s Day shit today has given me a headache.”

“Catch up with you later,” Mitsuko mumbled, not looking up from her nails. Yoshimi sat up for a moment, and let out a sound Yuichiro thought resembled a dying cat. Mitsuko, this time, looked up, and gave her a glare.

“No one cares about _my_ pain,” Yoshimi wheezed, tears and makeup running down her cheeks. She let out another dying cat sound, and Mitsuko’s frustration seemed to heighten.

“Oh, cry me a fucking river, Yoshimi,” Mitsuko snapped at her. “We all told you Kuramoto was bad news. Me. Hirono. Tsukioka. Even _Kuronaga_ once tried to explain to you this basic fact. You have no one to blame but yourself, dumbass.”

Yoshimi quickly left after that. Yuichiro felt bad for her, and wondered if it would be for the best to just leave it today, but before he knew it, he was stepping out of his hiding spot, and walking towards Mitsuko. She’d noticed him already, evident by the smirk filling her face. He walked closer to her, his cheeks turning pink as he looked down at the teddy bear in his hands.

How had he thought this was a good idea?

“Who are you?” Mitsuko asked him, already looking impatient. Yuichiro wasn’t surprised she had no idea he existed. He’d always kept a rather low profile, and no one he hung out with was targeted by the Souma gang. He had always kept his distance from her, until now.

“Y-Yuichiro Takiguchi. I’m in your class,” Yuichiro offered her a nervous smile. He decided to just go for it, not knowing how painful the conversation could get if he delayed doing what he’d come here to do all along. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Mitsuko looked down at the bear now in her hands, more confused than anything.

“I… uh… picked it out specially for you. There’s something inside-“ Yuichiro began to explain, but stopped himself in his tracks when he saw Mitsuko’s eyes start to shine with some sort of greed. She began to pull on the teddy bear’s head to get to the contents inside. “No, no, it’s okay, there’s a-“

The bear’s head came off, and heart-shaped chocolates spilled onto the ground, the sound echoing through the hallway.

“…. zipper at the back that you unzip to get to the stuff inside…”

Mitsuko collected the chocolates off the ground, unwrapping one and taking a bite. She gave him a nod of approval, but didn’t bother to thank him before she left. Yuichiro sighed at the absolute failure of an interaction, and bent down to collect the remains of the bear, and the few chocolates Mitsuko had left behind. He shouldn’t have tried.

 _At least she was happy with the chocolates,_ Yuichiro thought sadly as he went to go back to his friends. They didn’t know that he was going to see Mitsuko, and he was planning to keep it that way. It had been too embarrassing to ever speak of again. He walked slowly down the hall, dragging the remains of the bear behind him, trying to ignore the feeling of chocolate melting in his palms. Somehow, it only made him feel more embarrassed.

He looked up at the sound of footsteps, for a moment wondering if Mitsuko had come back, but he quickly brushed the thought away, knowing there was essentially no possibility of it happening. Instead, he saw Sho Tsukioka walking down the hallway, head down, definitely not looking like his usual self. Before he could stop himself, Yuichiro walked up to him. He hoped he wouldn’t embarrass himself further.

“Tsukioka, are you okay?” Yuichiro asked. Sho looked up at him, wiped the look of absolute misery off his face as best as he could, and shrugged.

“I guess I am,” Sho said. It was only Yuichiro – he figured he could be kind of honest with him. He wasn’t one to run around gossiping. “Nothing like being essentially _snubbed_ on Valentine’s Day.”

“Oh,” Yuichiro thought back to class this morning, and the look of delight on Mitsuru’s face when he received a rose from Kazuo, and he connected all the dots easily. “I’m sorry that happened to you, Tsukioka. At least _this_ didn’t happen to you.”

Yuichiro held up the bear’s body in one hand, stuffing falling onto the ground as he did so, and the head in the other. Some of it’s fur had been stained with the melted chocolate. Sho stepped back for a moment and almost laughed, but managed to hold it back. He shouldn’t judge. While this was pretty bad, he’d still had a pretty awful day himself. He was sure Yuichiro wouldn’t be offering up the whole story.

“That looks… unfortunate,” Sho eventually decided on. “I guess we’re both alone today, then.”

Yuichiro didn’t exactly know what possessed him to do what he did next, especially due to the fact that he’d been embarrassed enough already, but he stepped forward, and made Sho an offer.

“Well, we don’t have to be alone on Valentine’s Day. There’s no rule. We could… oh, I don’t know, go out after school to the mall and hang out or something? Better than being alone.”

Sho smiled at him, and gave him a nod. It was much better than going out with Hiroshi, the now only lonely member of the Kiriyama family, and being made fun of about the ‘rejection’ from Kazuo until he finally decided to go home.

Yuichiro was about to say something back when he heard another dying cat noise. As he expected from the sound, Yoshimi was walking through the hallway, looking just as upset, if not more, as she was when she left after Mitsuko insulted her. She walked up to Sho, looking like an absolute mess. Yuichiro stepped back, wondering if he should go, but his feet stayed firmly in place.

“Sho,” Yoshimi said through her tears. “Are you busy this afternoon? Please say you’re not… I need someone to watch sad movies with and eat ice cream with and Hirono and Mitsuko are bitches and wouldn’t even do it if I paid them! I even offered! I _offered!”_

Sho just studied Yoshimi for a moment, hating how his friend had turned into a pathetic disaster in just a few hours, when _really_ , she should have been celebrating. He knew he had to handle it delicately though, or as delicately as he could, unlike Mitsuko had. It was tempting to say _‘I told you so,’_ but he knew that wasn’t what she needed right now. He needed to find a middle ground, somehow. He didn’t want to skip the legitimate Valentine’s Day plans he’d just made with Yuichiro to help Yoshimi wallow over her long-awaited breakup.

“I’m sorry, Yoshimi, but I just made plans with Takiguchi,” Sho said. “I guess you could come along if you wanted to.”

Yoshimi sniffled and wiped her eyes, but her tears kept coming. She shook her head, and mumbled something about not wanting to be a downer, and then went to leave. Yuichiro thought for a moment, not wanting to see someone so upset, especially on Valentine’s day, and thought of something that would hopefully make her feel at least a little better.

“You can come with us, Yahagi. I don’t mind,” Yuichiro smiled at her. “I have a friend in another class I think you’d get on well with. Think of it as a double date- um, I don’t mean _date_ exactly but-“

Yoshimi turned around, took a deep breath, and finally stopped crying.

“I’d love that. Thank you so much, Takiguchi.”

Yuichiro smiled at her.

“It’s fine.”

All three of them felt a lot better.

\---

It was now the end of the day, and Yukie was still troubled. She had absolutely no idea who had sent the roses, and she was starting to wonder if she should have broadened her list to include people from other classes as well. Haruka walked beside her as she continued to talk about how much it was killing her to have absolutely no idea who sent them. Guilt filled her stomach. She wondered if she should come clean, but the thought of admitting her feelings made her feel even more ill.

Shinji and Shogo walked by them, hand in hand, leaving school together. Yukie dug her paper out of her hand and scratched through Shinji’s name on the list. He’d been a last-minute add to it. She scratched through Shogo’s as well. She’d added him to the list when she’d begun to grasp at straws.

“Mimura and Kawada are out,” Yukie updated Haruka, despite the fact she was standing right next to her. “Not that I really thought it could be them. Seriously… _who could it be?_ I’ve struck through the names of pretty much every single boy in our class without a crush that I know of.”

For a moment, Haruka decided she’d just respond with _‘how about you go through boys you know in other classes?’_ but it just didn’t feel right. She needed to tell her the truth, and she was determined to do it.

“Wait, Yukie?” Haruka stopped, her heart beating madly. She could do this. She could do this. _She could do this._

“Yeah?” Yukie looked over at her and stopped too, putting her list away for the time being.

“I… I have something to tell you,” Haruka said, willing herself to look her best friend in the eye instead of keeping her eyes firmly planted on the floor, “I sent you those roses, but I was too nervous to attach my name to them. To be completely truthful-“

Yukie cut her off, not even hearing the last part. She wrapped her best friend in a hug, Haruka’s eyes widening, and she tried to get over her shock of being interrupted. She waited for the right time to continue, wondering if she even wanted to continue at first, but Yukie began to talk before she could get another word in.

“That’s so sweet of you, Haruka!” Yukie beamed. “It’s so nice to know my friends think of me like that! You’re the best friend _ever!”_

She continued to hug her, until the familiar pinging of her phone caught her attention, and she pulled away to read the message.

“Oh. That’s my mother. She wants me to come home and help her with something. I’ll see you tomorrow, Haruka,” Yukie gave her friend a smile and a wave, leaving before Haruka could say another word.

Haruka sighed. Why did Valentine’s Day have to exist?

\---

Finally, the hell that was a Valentine’s Day spent at school was over. Hirono Shimizu walked beside Mitsuko and Yoshimi on the way out of school. She’d noticed that Yoshimi had finally stopped weeping, much to her relief, and as a result, she was almost tolerable again. Mitsuko was ranting about how shitty Valentine’s Day was, how much of a waste of time it was, and how much she hated the holiday altogether. Hirono did agree with the points she was making, but had to admit she thought there was something more to her rant other than just hating the holiday.

It was as if Mitsuko had been… expecting something from someone today, or had wanted to talk to someone today but had completely chickened out. Hirono decided not to mention it. She didn’t have a death wish. Mitsuko wasn’t in the right mood at the moment to be teased, she could tell.

Mid-rant, Hirono heard the sound of someone clearing their throat quietly behind Mitsuko. Mitsuko stopped herself mid-curse and turned around to see Noriko Nakagawa standing there, looking absolutely terrified. Strangely enough, at being interrupted, Mitsuko didn’t even look _angry._

 _Yeah,_ Hirono thought to herself. _This must have had something to do with her being so cranky today…_

“S-Souma?” Noriko stammered, gently brushing a strand of hair out of her face, “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I… I baked these cookies for Valentine’s Day and I wanted to give them to you..”

Hirono swore she saw Mitsuko smile slightly. Without any snide comments or a carefully-crafted insult, Mitsuko stepped closer to Noriko, and gently took the pack of cookies from her. She took a bite of one, her smile growing, and she even complimented her on them. The two began to have a conversation, and Hirono turned away. This was too weird for her.

“Let’s go, Yoshimi,” Hirono said, and began to walk. After several minutes of hearing absolutely no noise from the girl whatsoever, she looked back. “Yoshimi? Oh, for fucks’ sake.”

Yoshimi was standing with Sho, Yuichiro, and a boy she didn’t recognise. The boy had made her laugh. Mitsuko and Noriko were gone as well. Great. Just great.

Hirono walked out of the school as fast as she could, not expecting how much it was bothering her to now be alone. It was just a dumb holiday… and one she didn’t like at all, so why was she feeling so weird all of a sudden? Her day didn’t exactly improve when she tripped down the front steps at the school, narrowly missing face planting. She swore loudly as pain filled her, and tried to get herself off the ground. Hopefully, no one had seen it.

“Oh my god, Hirono! Are you okay?!” Haruka’s voice filled her ears, which made the situation ten times worse. She was still hopelessly crushing on her. She almost blushed when Haruka helped her off the ground, collecting the items that had fallen out of her bag, placing them back in it, and gently placing it over her shoulder.

“I’m okay, Haruka,” Hirono shrugged, wiping some blood off her lip. “This day has just sucked altogether. I can’t wait for it to be over.”

“Tell me about it,” Haruka sighed sadly. The two began to walk together, putting the school behind them. “I hate Valentine’s Day now. With a passion.”

“I’m glad you’ve seen the light,” Hirono joked. Haruka laughed, and the sight of her smile made Hirono want to melt. She hated feeling so weak, so powerless, so _in love_ , even, but she couldn’t help it. Being around Haruka made her feel different, and it was a good different too. She couldn’t properly describe it.

“We could go celebrate,” Haruka said, hating the idea of going home and being asked by her mother if any cute boys had gotten her any gifts, “how much Valentine’s Day sucks. How we’re the only sensible ones left in th world.”

Hirono grinned at her, and informed her that it was an excellent idea.

About fifteen minutes later, they sat in the park, beside a broken swing set and away from the happy couples having picnics that seemed to only exist to make them feel nauseous, ice cream in hands. Haruka raised her as if she had a drink, and turned to Hirono.

“To Valentine’s Day sucking,” Haruka proclaimed.

Hirono gently pressed her ice cream against Haruka’s.

“To Valentine’s Day sucking, as it always has and always will!” Hirono smirked.

The two girls burst into laughter and went back to eating their ice cream. Maybe that was a bit of a lie. Now that they were together, the day didn’t suck even half as much.


End file.
